Over the last few weeks I have been putting the finishing touches to my new collection, which is called Winter Jewels. These designs celebrate the beauty of the Hellebore, known as the Christmas or Lenten rose. This is however much more than a collection, but a botanical study of these magical flowers that are actually made up of sepals not petals.

You will find that I digitised several varieties, and although there will be more to come in the other sets in the collection, it would have been impossible to do them all as they are so diverse. Hellebores belong to the buttercup family and grow in many parts of Europe. Although I aim to be botanically correct sometimes there has to be a little license for however much I try I cannot capture every detail in stitches.

The collection started with this wonderful botanical type design and I introduced seasonal greenery to the collection for some variety and contrast. You will find ivy leaves and dark purple ivy seed heads. There is some mistletoe with its white berries and naturally I have included holly leaves and some clusters of holly berries, which are a little larger than previous berries that I have digitised.

These elegant plants thrive in my garden throughout the winter months bringing such beauty. Many of my hellebores are grown in pots outside my kitchen window on a wooden frame that houses my fuchsias in the summer months. It is wonderful to admire them all from the window. I like to do more than just a collection of embroidery designs and try to introduce you to new techniques with will make your embroidery projects even more interesting and beautiful.

Most of the elements in this collection can be stitched out successfully on tulle or other sheer fabrics. I even did this with the ivy seed heads and the inner sections of the flowers. It is vital that you use a good quality wash away stabiliser when embroidering them out on sheer fabric like tulle, and I have used one layer of Floriani Wet N Gone in testing out these designs. I hoop the tulle or sheer fabric with the wet and gone. Floriani Wet N Gone . The other option is to use a light stabiliser and leave it in place. I have used Sulky Soft N Sheer.

For this hellebore I stopped before the last two colour ways and layered an inner rosette that I had previously prepared, and then added the centre.

Here is the finished hellebore.

When you have all you layers it is possible to add the centre section in the same way. Here are more examples of what you can achieve with the designs in the first set.

I have used metallic thread for the veins of this flower.

Once you start creating these gorgeous flowers you will think of all sorts of possibilities and uses for them.

Winter Jewels 1 for 4×4 hoops was released today (December 10th, 2018) and is available for $24 or you can pre order all 5 sets for just $35. Watch out for some videos on my YouTube channel.

Lastly this is the freebie that you can test out as an example of the quality of these designs.

10 Responses to My first Christmas roses

I am always amazed at how accurately a “true to life” picture of a flower is able to be duplicated in your embroidered designs! Thank you for perfecting your digitizing skills to enable many beautiful floral effects!

Wow Hazel these are just incredible and so lifelike – cannot wait to decide how to use them – your skills are just wonderful and we have the privilege of making out projects look so beautiful – thank you !